Va.  m  • 

Objectives  of  the  Committee 
on  Christian  Literature 

SINCE  1912  the  Committee  on  Christian  Liter- 
I  ature  of  the  Federation  of  Woman’s  Boards 
of  North  America  has  made  real  progress  in 
its  task.  As  we  enter  upon  1925  a  statement  of 
the  work  accomplished  is  desirable. 

Happy  Childhood  in  China 

In  1914,  Mrs.  Henry  W.  Peabody  and  Mrs. 
Helen  Barrett  Montgomery  while  visiting  China 
were  impressed  with  the  need  of  a  Christian  maga¬ 
zine  for  children.  They  found  that  Mrs.  Donald 
MacGillivray,  a  missionary  of  the  Canadian  Pres¬ 
byterian  Board  in  Shanghai,  would  be  glad  to  edit 
such  a  periodical,  provided  funds  for  printing 
and  distribution  could  be  supplied  by  the  Christian 
Literature  Committee.  The  China  Sunday  School 
Union  agreed  to  do  the  printing  for  a  very  moder¬ 
ate  compensation  and  the  next  year  the  little  bark 
with  the  felicitous  name  of  Happy  Childhood  was 
launched.  It  is  an  unpretentious  monthly  of  six¬ 
teen  pages,  with  stories,  puzzles,  Sunday  school 
lesson  comments  and  many  features  novel  to 
Chinese  child  life.  The  subscription  price  is  fifty 
cents  gold  a  year  and  may  be  sent  to  the  Sunday 
School  Union,  Shanghai,  direct,  in  United  States 
postage  stamps. 

For  ten  years  Mrs.  MacGillivray  has  given 
unremitting,  devoted  service,  without  a  dollar  of 
compensation  from  the  Committee,  the  Canadian 
Presbyterian  Board  generously  providing  her  sup¬ 
port  and  allowing  her  to  give  a  large  share  of  her 


time  to  this  project.  Picture  blocks  have  been 
supplied  by  Everyland  as  well  as  by  native  draw¬ 
ings,  and  the  edition  and  budget  have  been  in¬ 
creased  year  by  year  until,  in  1  924,  7,000  copies 
were  printed  each  month,  reaching,  at  a  modest 
estimate,  at  least  60,000  readers. 

Christmas  Picture  Books  have  for  several  years 
been  compiled  from  Happy  Childhood  and  have 
met  with  great  demand — an  edition  of  1 2,000  be¬ 
ing  quickly  sold  out  and  proving  insufficient  for 
the  call.  The  magazine  was  said  at  one  time  to 
go  into  almost  every  province  in  China.  High 
officials  take  it  for  their  children  and  General 
Feng  has  subscribed  for  copies  for  his  soldiers. 

Old  and  young  welcome  it,  as  is  shown  in  the 
following  extracts  selected  from  many  letters  re¬ 
ceived  by  Mrs.  MacGillivray.  Mrs.  Anne 
Matheson  of  the  Rickshaw  Mission,  Shanghai, 
writes:  “The  interest  in  Happy  Childhood  is  not 
confined  to  our  mission  schools.  Many  men  and 
women  are  eager  to  receive  a  copy.  Their  delight 
in  the  pictures  and  stories  is  every  bit  as  real 
as  that  of  the  children.”  Another  missionary 
writes:  “The  children  love  the  magazine.  I  use 
it  in  day  school  and  Sunday  school.  When  I 
asked  a  class  of  third  grade  children  what  they 
enjoyed  most  in  their  work,  they  answered  with 
one  voice,  ‘Foh  Yu  Pao’ — Happy  Children.** 

Mrs.  MacGillivray  has  had  a  Chinese  helper. 
Miss  Sung,  who  during  her  furlough  in  Canada 
this  year  will  assist  Miss  Martha  E.  Pyle,  gener¬ 
ously  loaned  for  this  work  by  the  Southern  Metho¬ 
dist  Board. 

The  amount  pledged  for  the  Happy  Childhood 
staff  is  $1,000.  In  addition  to  the  magazine  a 
“Series  of  Happy  Childhood  Stories”  has  been 
prepared  and  has  met  with  much  favor.  Among 
these  stories  are  “Lovey  Mary”  and  “Just 


David.”  Last  year  1 ,828,000  pages  were  issued. 
Mrs.  MacGillivray’s  last  work  before  leaving  for 
furlough  was  the  bringing  out  of  a  ‘‘Life  of 
Christ”  in  four  small  volumes,  in  attractive  form, 
suitable  for  children  and  ignorant  women  who 
are  ‘‘slow  at  the  learning  and  dismayed  at  the 
sight  of  big  books.” 

There  was  an  increase  of  50%  in  sales  in  1923 
over  1922,  yet  all  that  has  been  done  has  been 
but  ‘‘drop,  drop,  drop,  into  an  empty  river  bed.” 
But  no  one  else  is  giving  the  children  of  China 
just  this  kind  of  Christian  teaching  and  it  is  the 
responsibility  of  the  Woman’s  Boards  to  provide  it. 

The  Woman’s  Messenger 

In  all  the  endeavors  to  give  Christian  reading 
to  the  women  and  girls  of  China,  the  name  of  Miss 
Laura  White  of  Shanghai  shines  as  a  pioneer 
light.  She  is  a  missionary  of  the  W.  F.  M.  S. 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  but  her  work 
has  been  both  interdenominational  and  interna¬ 
tional.  She  has  at  times  lent  a  willing  hand  to 
the  Happy  Childhood  staff  and  is  at  all  times 
engaged  in  training  the  Chinese  assistants  without 
whom  the  best  type  of  translation  and  authorship 
is  impossible.  It  is  the  pledge  of  the  Committee 
to  provide  $500  for  Miss  White,  in  1925,  to 
enable  her  to  carry  out  her  far-reaching  plans  and 
to  give  her  needed  assistance  while  she  recovers 
from  a  severe  illness. 

The  Phoneme  Script  in  China  has  thrown  wide 
open  doors  to  thousands  of  humble  homes,  but  the 
Christian  forces  are  not  keeping  up  with  the 
demand  for  good  reading. 

A  Love  Offering  for  Japan 

Our  second  venture  was  a  bit  of  help  for  our 
sisters  in  the  ‘‘Sunrise  Kingdom.”  In  Japan  the 


Society  for  Christian  Literature  has  a  woman’s 
department  with  Miss  Amy  Bosanquet  of  the 
Anglican  Mission  in  charge.  Our  Committee  had 
been  giving  $300  each  year  to  help  in  publishing 
a  little  newspaper  sheet  Ai  No  Hi^ari  for  the 
coolie  and  fisherwomen  of  Japan.  In  1922,  in 
response  to  an  appeal  that  a  special  grant  be  made 
for  the  translation  and  publication  of  Dr.  Hurl- 
but’s  “Stories  of  the  Bible’’  a  generous  donor  gave 
$1,200.  When  in  September,  1923,  the  earth¬ 
quake  brought  such  wide-spread  distress,  demolish¬ 
ing  the  plant  and  presses  of  the  Christian  Litera¬ 
ture  Society  in  Tokyo,  this  translation  had  been 
completed  and  the  manuscript  was  in  the  home  of 
the  Japanese  Christian  who  had  been  at  work 
on  it.  His  home  was  destroyed,  but  in  a  way  al¬ 
most  miraculous  the  precious  document  was  saved 
and  is  now  ready  for  distribution  among  the 
teachers  and  mothers  of  Japan,  who  are  eagerly 
waiting  for  it. 

In  January,  1 924,  our  Committee  authorized  an 
“Emergency  Grant”  for  the  Christian  Literature 
work  in  Japan  and  an  appeal  was  made  at  many 
services  held  on  March  7,  the  “Day  of  Prayer 
for  Missions.”  About  $1,000  has  been  received 
in  small  sums  coming  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  from  little,  remote  towns  as  well  as  from 
the  larger  cities.  In  nearly  every  accompanying 
letter  has  been  some  word  of  the  privilege  of 
uniting  in  such  a  gift  for  Japan.  Miss  Bosanquet 
writes  in  response  to  the  first  inst?11rnent  of  this 
“Emergency  Grant,” — “The  Japanese  well  know 
that  many  of  the  people  of  the  U.  S.  A.  are  their 
friends  and  are  touched  to  hear  of  the  many  small 
gifts  which  have  made  up  this  sum.”  Another 
thousand  dollars  is  needed  to  complete  this  grant. 


A  Magazine  for  a  Million  Boys  and 
Girls — The  Treasure  Chest 

In  India  are  a  million  boys  and  girls  who  can 
read.  But  until  recently  there  has  been  no  maga¬ 
zine  for  these  eager  young  students  with  a  dis¬ 
tinctively  Christian,  non-sectarian  basis,  in  which 
all  the  great  communions  can  cooperate. 

For  several  years  the  Committee  on  Christian 
Literature  for  Women  and  Children  canvassed 
the  possibility  of  starting  such  a  monthly.  In 
1922  funds  were  in  hand  with  which  to  launch 
it,  and  again  we  were  fortunate  in  finding  an  editor 
deeply  interested  to  undertake  the  new  venture  and 
a  Board  generous  in  providing  her  support.  Miss 
Ruth  E.  Robinson,  formerly  connected  with  Isa¬ 
bella  Thoburn  College,  a  missionary  of  the 
W.  F.  M.  S.  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  now  residing 
in  Bangalore,  gladly  accepted  the  responsibility  and 
the  first  number  of  the  English  edition  appeared 
in  July,  1922.  The  success  of  The  Treasure 
Chest  has  been  phenomenal.  One  missionary 
writes:  “I  have  never,  in  long  years  in  India, 
known  any  missionary  enterprise  which  has  won 
such  quick  and  enthusiastic  support  from  Christian 
and  non-Christian  alike.”  The  first  edition  was 
published  in  English,  as  it  was  felt  that  thus 
readers  would  be  secured  in  all  the  great  language 
areas.  The  subscription  price  in  India  is  two 
rupees  a  year,  in  the  U.  S.  A.  one  dollar. 

Attractive  illustrations,  often  furnished  by  In¬ 
dian  students,  prize  contests  in  short  stories,  nature 
study  sketches,  current  news  from  other  lands  and 
many  original  and  interesting  features  have  put 
this  magazine  on  a  very  high  plane.  The  editor 
is  confident  that  before  1924  closes  3000  paid 
subscriptions  will  be  secured  in  India. 

Vernacular  editions,  less  ambitious  in  appearance, 
but  filling  a  real  need,  have  been  started  in  Urdu, 


Tamil  and  Marathi,  for  which  the  Committee  has 
pledged  $500  each  per  annum.  Capable  editors 
have  been  found  and  readers  are  increasing  month 
by  month.  The  Marathi  edition  is  the  successor 
of  a  magazine  formerly  published  by  the  American 
Board  Mission  in  Ahmednagar,  and  has  as  its 
editor  Miss  Emily  Bissell,  whose  experience  in 
literary  work  makes  her  a  most  successful  promoter 
of  this  new  Dnyanodaya  for  juniors,  which  has  re¬ 
ceived  a  joyful  welcome.  The  Tamil  edition  is 
the  newest,  starting  this  summer  with  an  edition 
of  1  000,  prepared  by  Mr.  Passmore  of  Madras. 

A  publishing  firm  in  India  has  offered  to  reprint 
the  biographical  sketches  which  have  appeared  in 
The  Treasure  Chest  under  the  title  “The  Child¬ 
hood  of  India’s  Heroes  and  Heroines,”  and  to  pay 
a  royalty  of  10%  on  every  copy  sold. 

The  many  testimonials  to  the  success  of  this 
periodical  cannot  here  be  quoted.  Among  the 
most  significant  is  that  from  a  woman  missionary 
who  says,  “I  think  of  The  Treasure  Chest  as 
among  the  leaves  of  the  tree  which  shall  be  for 
the  healing  of  the  nations.” 

For  1925  a  budget  of  $2500  for  the  English 
edition  will  be  required,  but  we  may  reasonably 
expect  that  year  by  year  the  amount  needed  will 
decrease  as  the  magazine  approaches  self-support. 

The  Seed  Sowing  and  the  Harvest 

Such  has  been  the  seed-sowing — a  few  thou¬ 
sands  of  dollars  given  by  the  Woman’s  Boards 
and  their  interested  adherents,  by  great  interde¬ 
nominational  organizations,  like  the  National  Board 
of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  and  the  Central  Committee 
on  the  United  Study  of  Foreign  Missions,  whose 
child  in  a  sense  this  Committee  is,  by  offerings 
from  the  Summer  Missionary  Conferences  and 
from  the  Day  of  Prayer  services. 


The  harvest  has  been  truly  a  hundred  fold  of 
happiness  to  many  children  and  poor  women  in 
dark  and  meagre  surroundings,  to  whom  a  Chris¬ 
tian  book  brings  a  new  “light  of  love.”  Pernicious 
reading  is  scattered  far  and  wide  freely  by  emis¬ 
saries  of  evil  in  all  these  lands.  The  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  has  been  slow  in  seizing  strategic  op¬ 
portunities  in  a  wide-open  world.  But  now  the 
Christian  Literature  Committee  of  the  Foreign  Mis¬ 
sions  Conference  of  North  America,  with  which 
our  Committee  cooperates,  is  making  extensive  sur¬ 
veys  and  laying  deep  foundations.  Christian  Liter¬ 
ature  for  Moslems  is  making  its  great  appeal  and 
the  Woman’s  Committee  with  its  golden  sheaves 
from  its  scanty  seed  sowing  is  facing  the  most  cru¬ 
cial  year  of  its  history. 

For  1925  we  need  a  budget  of  $7,000.  If 
we  fail  to  secure  this  we  shall  not  only  disappoint 
those  who  are  depending  on  us  for  support  but  we 
shall  take  a  step  which  will  result  in  tearing  down 
the  constructive  work  of  the  past  ten  years,  so 
patiently  and  lovingly  wrought. 

Will  not  every  Woman’s  Board  pre¬ 
sent  this  object  to  possible  givers  in  its 
constituency  and  also  make  an  appro¬ 
priation,  large  or  small,  to  save  the  day 
for  good  literature  for  women  and  chil¬ 
dren  in  the  year  1925? 


Published  by  Committee  on  Christian  Literature 
for  Women  and  Children  in  Mission  Fields 


Address — 25  Madison  Ave.,  New  York  City 

or 

Miss  M.  H.  Leavis,  West  Medford,  Mass. 

Alice  M.  Kyle,  Chairman  and  Treasurer 
63  Parsons  St.,  Brighton  P.  O.,  Boston,  Mass. 


